Passive range of motion exercises for the wrist and hand are designed to increase flexibility in your finger and wrist joints while strengthening the muscles that support the joints. As opposed to active range of motion exercises, passive range of motion exercises are performed for you by an aid or therapist.
Wrist Rotation
This wrist rotation exercise will strengthen your patients wrist muscles as well as increase range of motion in his hands and wrists. While your patient is lying down in bed with his wrists flat on the bed, lift his right forearm off of the bed. From here, place your hand under his wrist, pushing firmly and bending his hand back towards his wrist. Push until you feel a tightness. Hold for 10 seconds before relaxing. Repeat several times, alternating with his left wrist as well.
Fist Clench
This fist exercise will improve range of motion in the fingers. Have your patient sit in a chair with his back straight and feet flat on the floor. With his wrist extended out and away from his body, have him make a loose fist. Grab his hand, pushing his fingers out and away from the fist position until they are fully extended. Move his hand back into a ball position, repeating this extension motion 10 times or until fatigued.
Wrist Turn
This variation on a basic rotation will help improve your patients passive range of motion as well as stretch out her wrist ligaments and joints. Hold your patients right wrist up, bending at the elbow so the wrist is perpendicular to the ground. With the palm of her hand facing her body, rotate her wrist inward, moving her right thumb to her left side until you feel a stretch. Hold for several seconds before repeating with her left wrist.
Finger Spreads
This hand exercise will improve range of motion in your patients fingers and wrist joints. Place your patients hand flat on a table or bed. From this position, spread his fingers out and away until a stretch is felt in all five of his fingers. Hold the stretch for several seconds before pushing his fingers back in. Repeat 10 times, alternating with his left hand until he is fatigued. As his mobility improves, increase the duration with which you hold the stretch.
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